Bail Me Out, Dude!
by leafs nation
Summary: Of all the things I could've been doing tonight, getting you out of trouble wasn't on my top list of priorities- Chuckie Finster


A red-headed spectacled boy sat at his desk trying to write a short paragraph for his English class that was due tomorrow. It was supposed to be a short love letter from Romeo to Juliet, but every time he tried to write something he either thought it would sound embarrassing or he would laugh at himself for how cheesy this assignment was. He was in the twelfth grade for crying out loud! Why his teacher was making the entire class "embrace their inner Shakespeare" was beyond him, yet he knew that it would badly affect his final grade if it wasn't completed, so he chose to put in a little effort.

Glancing at the clock, he groaned in frustration as he realized he'd been working on it for at least two and a half hours now. He ran his figures through his medium-length hair and closed his eyes.

'Maybe a battering ram will come smashing through my door and put me out of my misery,' he thought tiredly.

As he started to think of everything except for his paper, his phone suddenly began to buzz on his bed. The teen stood up and looked at the text message which read:

'_Call me, I need you to do something'_

He groaned in annoyance and dialed the number. After three rings, the person finally answered.

"_Hello?"_

"Kimi, where the heck are you? I thought you told me you were coming back at 8:30, and it's now," Chuckie quickly glanced at the clock and said, "12:15! Mom and Dad are gonna kill you!"

"_I know, I know…" _she said on the other line, "_but I was over at Lil's and I lost track of time. That's why I need you to cover for me… only there's one problem."_

"What's that?" Chuckie asked, slightly confused as to why she couldn't just drive back.

"_We kind of crashed the car and it got towed, and the repair guy said it would be a couple of days before I can get it back. So, I need you to come pick me up_."

"Well it was nice knowing you, Kimi. You should come visit me after your jail sentence from Mom and Dad is up."

"_Please, Chuckie? I really need your help, and I promise I'll make it up to you somehow!"_

She could hear the sound of him chuckling dryly and replying, "It's going to take more than a few favours for you to make this up to me…"

"_So that's a yes, then? Thanks Chuck! You're the best big bro ever! I'll see you here."_ With that, she hung up the phone, leaving Chuckie confused as to how he agreed to this.

Staring back at his paragraph that had numerous scratch marks and doodles on it, he debated whether to just tell Kimi to stay over at Lil's for the night so that he could get back to work. And, after sighing in defeat and grabbing his jacket, he slowly started to make way into the hallway.

That was, of course, before he was interrupted by the sound of his father calling out to him from his parent's bedroom.

"Oh, just getting a midnight snack, Dad," he lied while doing a little circle pattern with his foot on the carpet and his hands behind his back.

"Why do you have your coat on though?"

Looking down, Chuckie realized his mistake of putting it on before he went outside, and needed to think of an excuse that he would buy fast.

"Oh this? Umm… I was just kind of cold and I couldn't find my sweater anywhere, ha ha!"

'I'm screwed,' Chuckie thought silently praying that it would work.

Luckily for Chuckie, Chas was too exhausted to think anything of it, so he simply said, "Ok, and can you make sure that Kimi is asleep when you come back up?"

"Sure thing," he whispered and quickly made his way down the stairs. He figured that he must have thought his sister came home a little late and was in her room, and was thanking the almighty Reptar that he didn't check for himself.

Grabbing the keys off the kitchen counter, Chuckie made his way quietly out the door and hurried over to his mother's car. As luck would have it, Kira had fixed the noisy muffler that had been occurring for a couple of weeks now, and the car was facing away from the house so his parents wouldn't be alerted to the headlights. Now his problem was trying to make it out of the driveway without attracting the unwanted attention.

He gripped the steering wheel tightly in a sudden adrenaline rush; he was getting kind of excited about sneaking out in the middle of the night and taking the car. Waiting until another car passed by, he shot out of the driveway a little too quickly and cursed himself for having terrible timing. He just had to hope that his parents didn't realize they were both gone.

Chuckie turned on the radio to see what station his mother had been listening to lately. Mumford and Sons' song "I Will Wait" was playing, and Chuckie turned the volume up a little. 'She's got good taste at least,' he thought, turning a corner and driving on the almost barren streets.

The night was clear and brisk, as it would be for a September evening. The leaves were slowly starting to change colour from green to orange, red, yellow and brown, which was one of Chuckie's favourite parts of the season. It represented a time of change, and of saying hello to new beginnings while saying goodbye to old hardships. 'God, I need to tear up that paragraph when I get home,' Chuckie thought with a shudder.

The teen counted the number on the houses before finally making his way over to the Deville's. He pulled up to the curb beside their house and saw Kimi standing up and waving goodbye to Lil, who also waved to Chuckie. He did a little wave of his own and stared at the radio while waiting for his sister to climb in.

Kimi opened the passenger door, sat down, buckled up and closed the door again. Neither of them said a word as Chuckie drove back the way he came. Chuckie just stared ahead and watched for any oncoming traffic, while Kimi twiddled her thumbs around. Finally, she decided to break the ice.

"So, Chucko, what's up?"

"What's up is that I'm driving my sister back home at one in the friggin' morning after she apparently crashed the car that we got from our parents. What the hell were you doing, anyway?"

"Well to be fair, it wasn't my fault."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Please enlighten me then," Chuckie stated, gesturing for her to explain.

Kimi leaned back in her seat and sighed as she rubbed her temples. "We were driving around the mall parking lot trying to find a place to, well, you know, park. Then suddenly Mom texted me asking if I was going to be home for dinner, when BAM! Smashed right into a pole."

Right now, all Chuckie could do was laugh. "So you're saying it was Mom's fault for the damages?"

Kimi shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Well, I wouldn't put it like that, but I guess so."

Turning the same corner he went through before, Chuckie said, "You don't even sound convinced yourself, Kim."

"I know, but that's what I've been telling myself all night long so can you please let me be content for now?"

Chuckie hesitated before asking how much it was going to cost. Not only would the price probably make him sick, but he knew that Kimi was really stressed out and needed all the support she could get right now.

"Well, on the bright side, Mom and Dad didn't seem to notice you were gone when I left."

"That's good… I think. But anyways, I'm sorry for putting you through all this, but Betty was definitely going to call Dad in the morning if she found out I stayed over. So… thanks."

The boy nodded and put a hand on his sister's shoulder before backing the car back into the driveway. Careful not to sound the alarm, both siblings tiptoed back into the house. Kimi considered climbing in through the window, but realized it would seem like a burglar was coming in, so she followed Chuckie's lead.

Chuckie opened the front door and visibly relaxed in the darkness as he knew they were safe. Nobody noticed they had left it had seemed, so the two of them were in the clear.

"I can't believe we got away with it! Now we just need to quickly get upstairs and we'll be fine-"

_Click! _

The kitchen lights blinded the two of them for a moment, and when their eyes adjusted they saw the figures of two very angry and disappointed adults standing with their arms crossed.

"Umm… for the record, the midnight snack idea might've not been the best excuse in the world…" Chuckie mumbled.

"No kidding," Chas remarked before continuing, "I can't believe you two. Sneaking off behind our backs was one thing, but both of you lying to us just dropped your trust level to zero."

Kimi decided to step in before things got out of hand. "Listen, don't ground Chuckie. He was just trying to cover up for my mistake, and it was my fault with the c… ar…."

She quickly covered her mouth but was even more shocked when her parents didn't even act surprised. When asking for the reasoning for this, Kira pushed the play button on the phone message machine and a gruff yet friendly voice came on.

'_Hi Kimi, it's Mike from Mike's Motor's calling. I just wanted to give you an update on your damaged vehicle, and sorry I'm calling at this hour but I forgot that the shop is closed on the weekend ha ha! Anyways, so it looks like your front hood was indented quite a bit, and your front left headlight is also in need of repair. Overall you're looking at around $650 in total, but we're willing to install a new seatbelt for free since it looks like it's stuck. Ok the, have a nice night and you can expect your vehicle to be ready for Thursday of next week. Take care!'_

"Huh, so that's how much it cost," Chuckie said aloud.

"March you two- we'll talk about your punishment in the morning." Kira said sternly.

"More like our torture sentence…" Kimi mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Kimi quickly said, "we'll just be going now."

Chuckie and Kimi trudged up the stairs, with Kimi making sure she was behind him in case he lost it on her. They both reached their respective doors before Kimi timidly turned to her brother.

"What's it gonna cost me?"

"Twenty favours and your paycheque for the next couple three months and then maybe we'll be even."

Chuckie closed the door behind him and laid on his bed face-down.

"Goodnight, Chuckie," Kimi said behind the door before collapsing onto her own bed and shutting her eyes.


End file.
